Is there a way to kill a ghost?

[Patch]

I finally got around to watching Cabin in the Woods the other week. Among the various creepy critters available for the killing floor was a ghost. Now, I know there's enough variety in what was available that it seems odd to focus on just the one entity, but given the prevalence of ghost stories vs, say, killer mermaids, I was wondering how one goes about stopping/killing a rampaging killer ghost? Is there any folklore or mythology about how one gets rid of a spirit? Is it all about the exorcisms, or is it too wide of a subject for there to be any common answers (much like vampires)?

[Trinopus]

Whew! WAY too wide a question. There are about as many kinds of ghosts as there are human cultures and societies.

A very common motif is that you can "lay" a ghost by relieving the tension that prevents it from "moving on." One tradition, for instance, is that a ghost is restless because its human remains haven't been properly buried. Bury them, and the ghost goes away.

Sure as anything, someone is going to come along and say, "There are no such things as ghosts," which, of course, implies there's no way to kill them. (Um... The ghost, that is.)

I once wrote a short fantasy story in which a lab tech invents a kind of lens-and-bright-light arrangement that lets you see ghosts clearly, and, if you turn up the wattage way high, lets you burn them. A kind of "ghost phaser." The nasty bit about the story was what happens if you fire the weapon at a living person. (It kills their soul...)

However, I'd recommend trying to make friends. It might be a cheerful ghost, like Casper, in which case, there are lots of very nice possibilities. He could help you find buried treasure, etc. etc.

[GuanoLad]

Close your eyes.

[thelurkinghorror]

You usually can't. Even the Ghostbusters just imprisoned them. You have to banish them usually.

Poltergeists and wraiths and other spirits are tied to one place. Just leave. But don't steal the wraith's gold. If it's a Ringwraith, you'd better get a sex or race change, and get a special weapon.

Or in fantasy settings, often you need a weapon that can hit the incorporeal (everything else passes through). So enchanted or silver weapons.

Some don't like sunlight. And umm... you can lay the ghost if you want, like the Entity. I'll do something else that doesn't involve describing my invisible rapist's face to the cops.

[TriPolar]

Since ghosts are already dead, then no, you can't kill them. You're too late.

[Yorikke]

Vacuum it up, then reverse the vaccuum into your freezer. If Tom and Jerry are to be believed, just make a cocktail from the ice.

[Patch]

Yeah, I know it's rather broad, but I was curious about what's out there.

Thanks for the ideas. I'd forgotten about the whole "moving on" bit, which is interesting.

[Senegoid]

Originally Posted by Trinopus

A very common motif is that you can "lay" a ghost by relieving the tension that prevents it from "moving on." One tradition, for instance, is that a ghost is restless because its human remains haven't been properly buried. Bury them, and the ghost goes away.

Originally Posted by Patch

Thanks for the ideas. I'd forgotten about the whole "moving on" bit, which is interesting.

Re-read Lord of the Rings. A whole bunch of warriors from an earlier Age cannot find rest because they died as cowards (if I recall the details right). Ages later, Aragorn recruits the restless spirits to fight alongside him. (Already being dead, they needn't be cowards any more.) After that battle is won, with their help, Aragorn bids them to rest in peace, and they leave.

Originally Posted by thelurkinghorror

You usually can't. Even the Ghostbusters just imprisoned them. You have to banish them usually.

IIRC, the Ghostbusters did in fact eventually have to kill them (or the entire universe, whichever happens first) by crossing the beams! The expected demise of the universe apparently didn't happen, but I guess the ghosts went away.

But to really banish them requires a moderator!

[Enter the Flagon]

I'm pretty sure my ex's cooking would do the trick.

[Darth Panda]

Get it to possess Rick Moranis, and then beat him to death.

[Oakminster]

Several Magic Missile spells from a high level Magic User should do the trick.

[Lanzy]

Burn their bones according to Sam and Dean

[Johanna]

Originally Posted by Lanzy

Burn their bones according to Sam and Dean

Bobby hears that and interrupts: That's salt and burn—idjits!

[JLRogers]

As this was posed to GQ and not IMHO, the correct answer is that we have no evidence of the existence of ghosts, therefore the question is meaningless.

[Indian]

Don't kill it, try to patch it up with the ghost.

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by Trinopus

Sure as anything, someone is going to come along and say, "There are no such things as ghosts," which, of course, implies there's no way to kill them. (Um... The ghost, that is.)

I think it also means anything will kill them.

[Sr Siete]

According to the well researched documentary series "supernatural", you can stave them off with salt, and kill them by burning their remains.

[Der Trihs]

Originally Posted by Trinopus

I once wrote a short fantasy story in which a lab tech invents a kind of lens-and-bright-light arrangement that lets you see ghosts clearly, and, if you turn up the wattage way high, lets you burn them. A kind of "ghost phaser." The nasty bit about the story was what happens if you fire the weapon at a living person. (It kills their soul...)

I'm reminded of Greg Bear's Psyclone, in which it turns out that extremely powerful bursts of the right kind of energy can produce badly damaged, "mutilated" ghosts. It takes a second application to actually destroy them.

[Ranchoth]

According to Ren & Stimpy, poison works. Notable aftereffect: it brings the person the ghost used to be back to life.

"I'll see you on the next shot. Ha!"

[panache45]

Originally Posted by JLRogers

As this was posed to GQ and not IMHO, the correct answer is that we have no evidence of the existence of ghosts, therefore the question is meaningless.

This. You can't kill something that doesn't exist.

Or are we no longer fighting ignorance, but pandering to it?

[Darth Panda]

Originally Posted by panache45

This. You can't kill something that doesn't exist.

Or are we no longer fighting ignorance, but pandering to it?

You may not want to go here...

A mod moved this very same question from IMHO to GQ a while back:

Given the skeptical nature of most of the TM, I doubt that you are going to get polite answers to this question.

However, since you are looking for factual information, rather than a debate on whether ghosts actually exist, I am going to nudge this over to General Questions.

NOTICE to ALL:

The question was asked for a specific answer. Posting lots comments that there are no ghosts is not a legitimate response. If you need to make those comments, open a new thread in GD or The BBQ Pit and simply refrain from posting in this thread.

[ /Moderating ]

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=590123

On the plus side, it generated a great pit thread:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=590128

eta: well, not really the same question, as the other poster was actually trying to kill a ghost, whereas this OP seems more interested in what methods are assumed to exist in various folklore and mythologies, but close enough.

[DrFidelius]

Discussing traditional or current folklore is fighting ignorance.

FWIW, ghosts can be imprisoned, laid to rest by resolving whatever is keeping the spirit connected to the material plane, or inhaled to absorb the memories inprinted upon the ghost (cite for the last one, Tim Powers' novel Expiration Date)

[JLRogers]

Actually, now that I review the question it does seem legitimate. "Is there any folklore or mythology about how one gets rid of a spirit?" is a reasonable, interesting question.

The title just happens to be pose a completely different, eminently risible question.

[Der Trihs]

Originally Posted by panache45

This. You can't kill something that doesn't exist.

That's arguably wrong; authors kill fictional characters all the time. For that matter, Tyrannosaurs do not at present exist, but "would a modern handgun kill one" is still a meaningful question.

The problem here really isn't that "ghosts" don't exist, but that they are undefined.

[Fear Itself]

I thought ghosts were already dead.

[JLRogers]

Originally Posted by Der Trihs

That's arguably wrong; authors kill fictional characters all the time. For that matter, Tyrannosaurs do not at present exist, but "would a modern handgun kill one" is still a meaningful question.

The problem here really isn't that "ghosts" don't exist, but that they are undefined.

This is incorrect. Authors don't kill fictional characters; they write stories about killing fictional characters. The two are not at all the same.

[CalMeacham]

When my wife was still working in the dentist's office a cute little girl was in the waiting room. At one point she asked about the music coming over the sound system, and my wife said it was called ":Unchained Melody", the little girl said "That's not "Unchsained Melody". It's the musics from Ghost!" She thought a minute and said "It was sad when Sam died. It was sad when he died again."


In Ghost, at least, you can get rid of a ghost either by the time-honored metghod of completing their uncompleted busines (as pointed out earlier in this thread), or by getting them sucked down to Hell by demons, as happened to the Bad Guy Ghost. (I understand that Mike Jittlov, the Wizard of Speed and Time himself, did the animation of those demons.)

[Diceman]

It depends on why the ghost is hanging around. As others have mentioned, finding the ghost's body (or portion of the body, for ghosts that are missing their head or whatever) is often enough to lay the ghost to rest. For ghosts that are tied to a particular location (ie, haunted houses) having a priest or minister or someone exorcize the house sometimes banishes the ghost (but apparently this doesn't always work).

[Darth Panda]

A means of last resorts is to cross your streams.

[thelurkinghorror]

Originally Posted by Darth Panda

Get it to possess Rick Moranis, and then beat him to death.

When's the last time you've seen Rick? Maybe someone already thought of that?

Originally Posted by Oakminster

Several Magic Missile spells from a high level Magic User should do the trick.

Cloudkill might work. No, ghosts don't have lungs, but cast a particularly attractive cloud of poisonous gas and the ghost may fall in love. A few weeks later, the ghost doctor will return with a terrible diagnosis: Spectral Syphilis.

[Leo Bloom]

I was at a Christmas part last year where I was introduced to well- dressed, put together woman in her forties. After I asked, she said that her profession was clearing haunted houses. I put on a big smile and was about to make some chuckle-worry comeback, but when I was about to I saw she was serious.

She lives upstate NY, comes down to the city for about six weeks a year, and her annual nut is covered. I didn't press her on the details of her work. Do haunted houses necessarily contain ghosts?

[bardos]

"Kill" is a strange term, when maybe "dispatch" is meant ? You can help a "ghost" to "move on," that is to move away from the strong fixation/attachment that keeps it "earthbound."

[pulykamell]

Originally Posted by thelurkinghorror

Poltergeists and wraiths and other spirits are tied to one place.

When I was a kid, I was quite interested in such things, and, AFAIRemember, poltergeists were tied to a person, not a place, and usually a child (often female) going through puberty.

[KneadToKnow]

Originally Posted by Leo Bloom

Do haunted houses necessarily contain ghosts?

I think it is both scientifically and mathematically safe to say that for every genuine haunted house there is at least one genuine ghost in it.

[Wheelz]

If I recall correctly, in the Harry Dresden series, ghosts aren't the traditional "souls" that were once living people. Rather, they are a sort of projection of what the person once was.... or something like that. In any case, I believe in that universe they can be killed, though I don't remember exactly how.

Maybe someone who knows those books better can pick up my fumble and run with it.

[Kenm]

Photographic proof of a ghost.

[panache45]

Originally Posted by Der Trihs

Tyrannosaurs do not at present exist, but "would a modern handgun kill one" is still a meaningful question.

The word "would" is crucial here. It's the difference between "How do you kill a ghost?" and "How would (or could) you kill a ghost?".

[BMalion]

Atomic Robo's lightning-gun usually does the trick.

[Measure for Measure]

Ghosts in Tibetan Culture: Wiki:

There is widespread belief in ghosts in Tibetan culture. ... When a human dies, after a period of uncertainty they may enter the ghost world. A hungry ghost (Tibetan: yidag, yi-dvags; Sanskrit: preta, प्रेत) has a tiny throat and huge stomach, and so can never be satisfied. Ghosts may be killed with a ritual dagger or caught in a spirit trap and burnt, thus releasing them to be reborn. Ghosts may also be exorcised, and an annual festival is held throughout Tibet for this purpose. Some say that Dorje Shugden, the ghost of a powerful 17th-century monk, is a deity, but the Dalai Lama asserts that he is an evil spirit, which has caused a split in the Tibetan exile community.

Also: hungry ghosts are "...a metaphor for people futilely attempting to fulfill their illusory physical desires."

So anyway: ritual daggers are the way to go.
----

Corpse Princess
In the anime Shikabane Hime ghosts (or Shikabane) exist when a human dies with sufficiently intense regrets or obsessions. They turn murderous. Practically speaking they can only be killed by... another shikabane! Which has teamed up with a Buddhist Monk of a particular sect! With their favored weapon! Which could be a pair of Ingram MAC-11 machine guns! Or brass knuckles!

[Richard Pearse]

Originally Posted by panache45

The word "would" is crucial here. It's the difference between "How do you kill a ghost?" and "How would (or could) you kill a ghost?".

The question the OP is asking is "what are some mythological methods of killing a mythological ghost."

Surely you agree that werewolves are supposed to be killed by silver bullets, and vampires are killed by a stake through the heart? OP just wants to know what is supposed to kill ghosts.

[Sr Siete]

Also, a good method is eating a blinking ball. That will make the ghosts blink for a time you can use to eat them.

[Cheshire Human]

Originally Posted by Senegoid

But to really banish them requires a moderator!

No, that's trolls, not ghosts.

[AuntiePam]

In Ellen Glasgow's story The Past, a ghost is dispatched when the woman being haunted takes the high road and refuses to divulge a shameful secret about the ghost (her husband's first wife). I think she should have told the secret but then I'm vengeful that way.

In another Glasgow story, The Shadowy Third, a ghost leaves after extracting vengeance. That story was a lot more satisfying.

[ZenBeam]

Cripes people (some of you). Read the OP, not just the thread title:

Originally Posted by Patch

Is there any folklore or mythology about how one gets rid of a spirit? Is it all about the exorcisms, or is it too wide of a subject for there to be any common answers (much like vampires)?

[Zebra]

I bet Chuck Norris or bacon could do it.

[the_diego]

Just bury him above head height. They say ghosts stay at the previous ground level (that's why they're often in cellars.)

[Lasciel]

Originally Posted by Wheelz

If I recall correctly, in the Harry Dresden series, ghosts aren't the traditional "souls" that were once living people. Rather, they are a sort of projection of what the person once was.... or something like that. In any case, I believe in that universe they can be killed, though I don't remember exactly how.

Maybe someone who knows those books better can pick up my fumble and run with it.

I'll fumble it down the line a bit...

Ghosts (from memory here) are in a class of beings that are formed from "ectoplasm" which is defined as matter from the "nevernever" which is another spiritual plane of existence co-existing with ours and intersecting at set points.

Any spiritual being (ghosts included) can be damaged enough to destroy them physically in this plane of existence. Ghosts, being more like projections or memories, just spatter into goo and are then gone. It is difficult to reason with them (being projections, not aware that they are dead and the world has moved on, often crazed, and generally suffering from some need to continue to act out violent or painful memories tying them to the world), and most often they simply need to be destroyed.

Ghosts are especially susceptible to graveyard dirt and/or consecrated ground, as well as by various holy or spiritual weapons created for that purpose (purpose is a powerful influence in the Dresdenverse).

Cites:
Harry and Michael vs Agatha in Grave Peril
Harry's "out of body experience" at the end of Grave Peril
Mortimer the ectomancer
the entirety of Ghost Story

[Patch]

Originally Posted by Richard Pearse

The question the OP is asking is "what are some mythological methods of killing a mythological ghost."

Surely you agree that werewolves are supposed to be killed by silver bullets, and vampires are killed by a stake through the heart? OP just wants to know what is supposed to kill ghosts.

Pretty much this. I certainly didn't expect the topic to take off the way it did.

[eburacum45]

If I recall correctly the ancient Egyptian way to kill a ghost was to erase all mention of the deceased from history. Names, images and statues can be destroyed, making the dead an unperson; this method has been tried by various regimes ever since to remove the memory of undesirables.

Without any memory of the dead to go with it, a ghost is just a draughty room or the wind in the trees...

[Peter Morris]

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